Amalgamation (2025)
In this new body of work, Ori Gersht returns to the botanical themes that have occupied him throughout his career. The inspiration for these new works comes from a painting by the 17th- century Dutch flower painter Hendrik Schoock.
When Gersht was invited to create a contemporary dialogue with the work of this Dutch Old Master, he chose to arrange his flowers in a similar setting, constructing an alcove identical to the one depicted in the background of Schoock’s still-life painting. The alcove provided both depth and a stage-like setting for the floral arrangements.
In this body of work, Gersht explores the relationship between photography and technology, revisiting fundamental philosophical conundrums concerning optical perception, conceptions of time, and the interplay between the photographic image and objective reality.
The photographs in this series were captured at the moment of explosion. Gersht’s floral arrangements are literally frozen in motion, a process made possible only through the technology of high-speed photography—a capability inconceivable to the Old Masters. This fleeting visual occurrence, too fast for the human eye to process and only perceptible through technological mediation, is what Walter Benjamin referred to as the "optical unconscious" in his seminal essay A Short History of Photography.
Technology has enabled Gersht to create contemporary versions of "frozen life," bringing Schoock’s historical concerns into a modern context. By grounding his photographs in the long-established tradition of still-life painting, Gersht underscores the painterly quality of his images. Yet, they remain fundamentally distinct due to the instantaneous process that captures each shattering still life at an astounding speed of 1/60,000th of a second.
In this series, flowers—symbols of peace and fragility—become subject of brutal obliteration, exposing the uneasy beauty that emerges from violence. The tension between creation and destruction, fragility and force, is heightened by the paradox of photography itself: an age-old medium striving to preserve reality while simultaneously challenging our understanding of what reality truly is.
The authority of photography as a reflection of objective truth has been shattered—but in its place, new possibilities emerge, allowing us to experience reality in a more complex, fragmented, and thought-provoking way.